Kristina Hoeppner: A year of interviews in review

Kristina Hoeppner 00:05

Welcome to 'Create. Share. Engage.' This is the podcast about portfolios for learning and more for educators, learning designers, and managers keen on integrating portfolios with their education and professional development practices. 'Create. Share. Engage.' is brought to you by the Mahara team at Catalyst IT. My name is Kristina Hoeppner. 

Kristina Hoeppner 00:28

Today is the first solo episode as I'd like to take the opportunity to look back over the first year of this podcast. When this episode goes live on the 11th of October 2023, I'll also be giving a short 20x20 presentation at the Eportfolio Forum later in the day, about what I've learned interviewing more than 30 portfolio practitioners. So I thought to share that presentation here in a slightly longer version.

Kristina Hoeppner 00:58

Now before I started the podcast, I had been thinking about how I could amplify our community's stories. As project lead of the Mahara portfolio platform and also member of the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force, I learn a lot about how organisations use portfolios and why they use them. But how could I share those stories? Personally, I find written case studies not very engaging because they can't easily convey all the enthusiasm that someone has about what they are doing. Academic articles already abound, but are a specific shoulder that is not necessarily accessible to all. Webinars are a fantastic way to talk about a topic and in particular engage the audience. However, you always need a screen as you may typically watch a presentation or are expected to view something that is written. 

Kristina Hoeppner 01:53

I however, wanted to explore a format that doesn't have these limitations, yet provides the opportunity to learn something new. And that's where podcasting comes in. I knew about podcasts for a long time, but had never thought about the format much prior to the second half of 2019 when I moved to a new apartment because my daily bicycle commute was just about eight minutes each way and didn't really think about myself as an auditory learner. 

Kristina Hoeppner 02:22

However, when my commute suddenly tripled, I discovered that I did like listening to audiobooks, but in particular podcasts because they were short enough for me to take in one or two ideas during one session, or maybe two. If it was a long episode, I didn't need to sit in front of a computer or watch a screen, but could listen while riding my bike, while being on the bus, or on the weekend while doing chores and make them a bit more enjoyable. A 2019 survey by Statista found that I'm actually in good company. Nearly three out of four podcast consumers in the U.S. tune into podcasts to learn new things. 

Kristina Hoeppner 03:04

So I formalised my arguments for a podcast because of course it needed to be approved if I were to do it as part of my job and had three main reasons why I thought a podcast about portfolios could be a good idea. 

Kristina Hoeppner 03:18

Number one: to learn. It's a way to break out of the traditional western way of sharing and publishing research by using conversations and interviews to explore a topic, putting the focus on the spoken word rather than the written word. The podcast would make it possible to literally hear different voices through and medium that is more accessible than subscription based journals or paid for books. It would also allow for easier experimentation of how to share content. 

Kristina Hoeppner 03:51

My second reason was to promote. The podcast would give the guests the opportunity to promote their work, expand on it, share something they could not share in a standard journal article or book, and thus explore more of the human side of their topic. It would also give me an opportunity to share things about Mahara outside of our regular newsletters, webinars, and product demonstrations.

Kristina Hoeppner 04:16

Last but not least: to include. The podcast would be created with accessibility in mind from the start, not only providing the audio, but also a written transcript and chapter markers for quick browsing. That would also allow for repurposing of content, including the creation of social media posts of which some of you you've probably seen the word clouds and then also the quotes.

Kristina Hoeppner 04:42

Really that's how 'Create. Share. Engage.' was born in mid 2022. It is affiliated with the Mahara project at Catalyst because that's where I work and I'm fortunate to be able to host the podcast as part of my day to day work to support our community and clients. 

Kristina Hoeppner 05:00

So that's where all the branding is coming from, down to the title of the podcast. All the imagery for it was created, of course, by our resident Mahara graphic designer Evonne Cheung who bears with me and my ideas for visuals that are more often than not quite hand wavy. She then comes up with something that just looks incredible. I called the podcast 'Create. Share. Engage.', which also happens to be the three main action verbs in Mahara. And I called it that because I didn't want to call it 'The Mahara podcast'. For one, you're not supposed to have the word 'podcast' in the title of your podcast, and by the way, neither use a microphone in the podcast logo. But more importantly, I didn't want to make it just about the technology. 

Kristina Hoeppner 05:47

Of course, the portfolio platform is very important as it allows you to express yourself and realise what you'd like to be able to do. However, I think it's the pedagogy that should come first and that should get the spotlight. I wanted to be able to focus on the how and the why of using portfolios in different contexts and also be able to interview people who do not use Mahara, but have fascinating stories to share that further our knowledge around portfolios and their benefits for our learners, no matter where they live, what they do, how old they are, or which technology they use. 

Kristina Hoeppner 06:27

My first guest was Lisa Donaldson from Ireland who was game to give this podcasting a go that way also bore witness to my first stumbling attempt at conducting an interview and learning the technology. Lisa has been involved in many portfolio initiatives in Ireland and internationally, and we've crossed paths regularly so that she was an obvious choice for me to interview her first.

Kristina Hoeppner 06:52

Since then, I've published 27 interviews and have spoken with 33 people altogether who work with portfolios in different parts of the world. There are a few clusters of interviews, notably in Aotearoa New Zealand, Melbourne in Australia, the UK and Ireland, Germany and the BeNeLux countries, and the Bay Area in the United States. 

Kristina Hoeppner 07:17

The people who have shared their time with me hold different positions at their organisations. Their positions range from learning designers to instructors to ePortfolio programme directors to those involved directly with software development, and a couple of retired community members because I also want to capture the voices of those who pioneered portfolios in education several decades ago. 

Kristina Hoeppner 07:41

One of my three quick answer and questions is, "In three words or short phrases, how do you describe portfolio work?" The most use words are reflect, learn, curate, and design. But there's also create, container, flexible, connective, and many others that are used to describe our practice. 

Kristina Hoeppner 08:03

Several people mentioned that the portfolio helps them to get to know their students better. It's a way to connect with them, learn about them, and therefore have a better idea of who they are. So for example, recently Sofia Colabella, Alberto Pugnale, and colleagues from the University of Melbourne published a research paper that shared this insight. After having switched to a digital design portfolio for the architecture students where the students also needed to show their process and not only the end result and were interviewed on it, Sofia and Alberto realised how much they didn't know about their students and how much their new digital portfolio helped them discover who their students were. They suddenly saw the whole student and not only the slice of the student that handed in a particular assessment task. 

Kristina Hoeppner 08:56

To speak in a metaphor, which some of you of course know I love doing because it provides a visual: if the students were bread, they'd be that rich, wholesome, wholegrain bread that has lots of dimension and flavour and just tastes good versus that squishy, highly processed white bread that was stripped of all its nutrients and looked like any other white bread. 

Kristina Hoeppner 08:57

My interviewees also acknowledge that we are all made up of stories Stephen Harlow from Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato - The University of Waikato, for example, talked about digital storytelling and how it can be used in portfolio practice. He has been using both for over 20 years and doesn't tire them because every story is different and every story counts. And it is not just our students' stories, but our own as well. 

Kristina Hoeppner 09:51

Paul Raper from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, for example, started out by creating his own portfolio before using it with his students. That way he knew what he could expect, and he also modelled the practice.

Kristina Hoeppner 10:08

Many come to portfolios because they crave change and want to try something different because what they had been doing so far didn't work for them or didn't give them the student engagement they were hoping for. They stay with the practice because they find it rewarding to see their students learn, grow, make changes, and see the benefits of keeping one or even more portfolios that document their learning and give them the opportunity to reflect on it. 

Kristina Hoeppner 10:36

Now, are all of these stories unique? Are they all special? Are they the unicorns amongst all the portfolio implementation projects? Well, yes, and no. Yes, because often they are the first at their organisation or even in their region to try portfolios in a particular way and are thus trailblazers. No, because often others have experimented with a similar idea, but that may have been in a different context, a different faculty, different institution, or even different country, and that's why they may not know of it. All our circumstances are different and unique, but we can find similarities in the practice of others and talk to them to learn more, once we know of their stories. 

Kristina Hoeppner 11:23

So now I'd like to hand over the microphone to everyone who I have interviewed so far and to let them share one thing from the episode. The episode notes will include the names in order.

Mandia Mentis 11:34

It's really a form that enables lifelong learning and practice.

Bob Reuter 11:39

What I really think is becoming more and more important and portfolio work is really helpful to do that is to learn how to learn and to use the portfolio as a place where you put down these thoughts and where you externalise your thinking so that it becomes visible.

Ingrid D'Souza 11:58

Be creative, be bold, and remember that it's your story. It's your story, and you have to tell me that story.

Stephen Harlow 12:05

If we really are homo narrans, the storytelling humans, and we made of stories, then our work is about choosing the stories that we want to represent us.

Paul Libbrecht 12:16

The portfolio is the opportunity for you to transfer the learning to your personal world, and this is an extremely precious proof of learning. 

Wendy Holley-Boen 12:25

Let the students make it their own, and then we behind the scenes will figure out how to find what it is we need to find for the assessment.

Ingrid D'Souza 12:33

The students developed such a sense of ownership for their learning. 

Teresa MacKinnon 12:38

One of the things I used to work with students very closely on was telling a journey, or describing a journey, and the use of your ePortfolio as a way of drawing attention to certain light bulb moments or key interactions.

Edd Bolton 12:55

There are certain key parts of that learning journey that are more valuable. As a students, if you're able to see that in yourself, it helps you identify you as a reflective practitioner. As a person, you have a better understanding of yourself and how you learn.

Kate Mitchell 13:10

It's really just about keeping in mind, you know, what's valuable for you to come back to. 

Ricardo Elizalde 13:16

Always add an artistic component - sound, art, collages. Give the portfolio authors a chance to do an 'About Me' page so they can share about themselves outside of your formal space.

Megan Mize 13:29

EPortfolios are social media. They're media meant to be consumed by audiences. So once they see that they tend to import more value to them versus just one it's a grade.

Misty Kirby 13:39

Keep your own. If you're showing students, if you're a learning designer, and you're showing an academic, walk the walk. That's the best thing and it doesn't have to be perfect. 

Amy Cicchino 13:50

Don't feel like an ePortfolio has to define you forever. An affordance of digital texts is that they're changeable. You're not deciding who you are, end of sentence; you're deciding who you are in this moment. I would say embrace that flexibility.

Sam Taylor 14:07

Do not leave it to the last minute. It's meant to capture your journey.

John Ittelson 14:14

Thinking of ways that electronic portfolios can help not only to documenting learning, but it really helps students take charge of their own learning.

Sarah Zurhellen 14:24

Have fun. It can be a place to be playful, to discover things about yourself that you didn't recognise before.

Bobbi Kamil 14:30

The hard question to your institution is 'How committed are you to allow students to grow?'

Paul Raper 14:37

I always make the point to the students that the portfolio is there for them. It is not a teacher driven tool. It is a student driven tool.

Christine Dülfer 14:47

Start small, and every little step matters. You have to start small because you have to make sure that you pick up your students where they are and then you take them with you. They need a good start. 

Bas Bakker 14:59

Higher Education cannot work anymore without an ePortfolio? We really need one.

Christine Slade 15:05

As an educator, I mean, it's a brilliant way to help students develop themselves, you know, personally, but also professionally, 

Wolfgang Müller 15:14

I see ePortfolios as a really intelligent and effective way for assessment.

Lisa Donaldson 15:20

Be brave. Take the opportunities that ePortfolio can offer and completely reimagine assessment and reimagine the assessment practice because ePortfolio can support so many different activities.

Kevin Kelly 15:35

Another buffet option, if you will, would be making space for students to provide evidence in their portfolios using formats consistent with their identities or cultural practices that may not be a traditional essay or a presentation.

Helen Chen 15:50

I still always go back to the fundamental questions. Why ePortfolios? Why do you think this is a tool that is going to address, you know, the problem or the need or the challenge that you currently have?

Rita Zuba Prokopetz 16:02

This serves as evidence that ePortfolios are well positioned as an innovative way for students to reflect on their learning history and for educators to design meaningful learning episodes.

Orna Farrell 16:13

You've written a reflection. Leave it for a while, couple of weeks, and then look back. And sometimes that's when new learning will happen. You will look 'Oh wow, I've changed. I've learned this, this and this since then.' So it's that cycle of looking back and looking forward, I think is really important.

Leticia Britos Cavagnaro 16:29

When we are not building reflection into the learning experiences that we create, we're, you know, basically, robbing our students of the opportunity to learn. 

Cathy Elliott 16:38

Every portfolio is different, and they've really indulge their creativity, which is super, it's really very nice to see.

Alberto Pugnale 16:45

So it was really, really satisfying to know what your students do outside universities. And you have so many ideas on how they could use that potential and those interests to develop themselves.

Sofia Colabella 16:57

Learning how to learn. That's one of the best outcomes of the ePortfolio strategy.

Maia Miller 17:03

Keyboard accessibility has ripple effects that benefit everybody.

Martin Dougiamas 17:06

The final product of learning is not your portfolio or an assignment or some content. It's yourself.

Kristina Hoeppner 17:17

Finishing this episode, I want you to ponder what portfolio story you would like to share either within your own organisation, at a conference like the Eportfolio Forum or the AAEEBL Annual Meeting, or maybe even on this very podcast. I'd love to learn more from your stories and share them with our community. After all, let's create, share, and engage.